I’m going to tell you something a little personal in this post, and it might be something you can relate to. I experience anxiety and depression, and while I have developed skills to alleviate my symptoms, there are still times where I just have to deal with lots of big, dark, consuming emotions until they drift away from me in their rain cloud.

If you’ve ever been caught in a spiral of your own fear and anxiety, then you know it can be hard to get some traction. Even when I was young, I loved writing and drawing as a way to center myself. Doing something simple like creating repetitive patterns or writing my thoughts down would help to reconnect me to the world.

For me, connecting to the world through drawing or writing is incredibly cathartic. It’s like an anchor when I don’t feel rooted in my body. You don’t have to be “talented” to alleviate anxiety or depression through the arts, and there are so many creative ways to interact with the world. You might like to dance, mosaic, sew, knit, sculpt, garden, and so on. Doing an activity to redirect your thoughts means you have less time to focus on how you are feeling or why you might be feeling that way (although for people who have anxiety and depression, there sometimes isn’t an easy explanation).

I want to share a thought map I made the other night when I was having a difficult time applying logic to the contents of my mind. I knew I needed a structure that would help me clear out the clutter – something to help me discern between what is worth entertaining, and what should just float by in my mind.

This might seem like a simple concept, but creating this drawing was an act of self-care. I was acknowledging my desire for a structure – for something coherent in the midst of my anxiety.

If you experience anxiety or depression, what do you do to help yourself regain balance?